Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Feminist Art Base: Cyrilla Mozenter

CYRILLA MOZENTER's work is grounded in drawing. Her major work has ranged from large-scale charcoal drawings in the 1980's, to installations made of peanuts, walnuts, beans, and stolen soap-- frequently in combination with thread and (white) fabric-- in the 90's, to the current free-standing, cream-colored, hand-sewn, industrial wool felt sculptures. And always works-on/with-paper... Much of the work of the last eight years has been made in relation to Gertrude Stein's writing; "Four Saints In Three Acts" has provided the basis for two recent projects. Mozenter's solo exhibitions of drawings and sculptures include "More saints seen" at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 2005-06, "Cuts and Occasions" at Dieu Donne Papermill, New York, in 2002, "Very well saint" at The Drawing Center, New York, in 2000, "Secret Ears" at BAM's Majestic Theater, Brooklyn, in 1996, and "Undercurrent" at Espaco Cultural Sergio Porto, Rio de Janeiro, in 1995. Group exhibitions include "Pins and Needles," curated by Lena Vigna, at the Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 2003, "Endpapers: Drawings 1890-1900 and 1999-2000," curated by Judy Collischan, at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, in 2000, and "Simply Made in America," curated by Barry Rosenberg, at the Aldrich Museum in 1993. She has been artist-in-residence at Dieu Donne Papermill, the Kohler Arts Center, and Instituto Municipal de Arte e Cultura-Rioarte, Rio de Janeiro. She has received two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and two project grants from The Fifth Floor Foundation. The Coby Foundation sponsored her solo exhibition at the Aldrich Museum with its accompanying limited-edition artist's book. Mozenter's work was most recently reviewed in the July/August issue of Sculpture by Jonathan Goodman. Her work is in the collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, Birmingham Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, New York Public Library Print Collection, University of Massachusetts- Amherst, Walker Art Center, and Yale University Art Gallery. She is a professor in the MFA program at Pratt Institute.

It seems to me that social-political movements are primarily about power. Different people take different roles in order to achieve the same ends. Although having been raised in a politically active (even revolutionary) family, I find myself expressing this will to power through the actual content of my artwork. I use materials and processes that could be considered "feminine" and my work has been seen as having iconic power. (The mythic power of the feminine.) Over the last several years I have been involved in a collaboration with Gertrude Stein (she may know I'm doing this), who I consider to be one of the great revolutionaries of the feminist movement. Her fearlessness was to be herself, which is the primary aim of my own life, both as an artist and as a person. I try to convey these values through my teaching of graduate students, my artwork, and my relationships with other people. I consider Agnes Martin heroic.